This study is concerned with the collective
consequences of social rules. The theoretical analyses take as a starting point
the notion of 'new institutionalism' in the social sciences. The analyses focus
on the nature and societal role of institutions, and more specifically social
security institutions: the 'rules of relief' that are constructed by the
community. Among other things, those institutions lay down the benefit
entitlements that people enjoy and the duties that have to be fulfilled in
order to enjoy them.

The empirical analyses explore some of the effects
of modern social security institutions. The central question is which
collective outcomes are generated by the social security rules in 11 countries.
The analyses first investigate whether the institutions differ from each other
to such an extent that the national systems can in practice be said to
represent three different types of social security: the liberal, the
corporatist and the social-democratic model.

Attention then turns to whether such 'social
security regimes' differ in the social outcomes they produce. This
investigation is performed on the basis of two indicators of collective output:
do the regime types differ in the number of benefit recipients they generate?
And is there a relationship between the empirical models of social security and
the degree of poverty that occurs in the different countries?